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Book -7^^ 



The Kansas Constitution. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. CYDNOR B. TOMPKINS, OF OHIO. 



Delivered in the U. S. House of Representatives, February 18, 1858. 



Mr. Chairman, I avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity to discuss what is familiarly known as 
the Kansas question ; and, in connection with 
that, the exciting question of Slavery. If these 
subjects are disagreeable to a portion of this 
Committee, I nevertheless feel it to be my 
privilege — my imperative duty — as one of the 
representatives of the people of the great State 
of Ohio, to speak my opinions today upon these 
subjects. That they are here now for discus- 
sion is no fault of mine, or of those whom I 
have the honor to represent ; and if the country 
is rent with dissensions, if this Government is 
ultimately overthrown and destroyed, I can 
certainly quote the great master of nature with 
as much propriety as did the distinguished mem- 
ber from New York, [Mr. Haskin,] on this floor, 
a few days since : 

" Thou canst not say I did it; never shake 

Thy gory locks at me." 

Twice the free States of this Union have sub- 
mitted to the unreasonable demands of Slavery, 
and humiliated themselves for the sake of peace. 
But to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
they never have submitted quietly, and I know 
they never will. The contest has now begun, 
and I say, 

"Lay on, Macduff! 
And damn'd be him that first cries, hold '. enough ! " 

I am opposed to the admission of Kansas as 
one of the States of this Union with he:- present 
Constitution. The paramount reason is, this 
Constitution establishes and sustains Slavery. 
I shall oppose her admission with her present 
Constitution. It is wholly immaterial to me 
whether that Constitution has been submitted 
to the people of the Territory for their sanction 
or not. I will not at this time stop to inquire 
whether it meets the approbation of the pres- 
ent inhabitants. The time was when I would 
have felt justified in voting for the admission 
of a State with a Slavery Constitution, if it was 
formed out of territory south of 36° 30 / north 
latitude, that belonged to this Government at 
the time the Missouri Compromise was adopted. 



I think it was the understanding of the parties 
to that compact, that such States should be ad* 
mitted; if not expressed, it was certainly im- 
plied, that such States should be admitted. If 
this was tbe understanding, national faith would 
have required their admission. 

But by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
the obligation ceased. I feel that every man 
in this country is free to act as his conscience 
may dictate. By the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, " the gauntlet is thrown at once." 
The Republican party have accepted the gage, 
and the contest is between Freedom and Sla- 
very. The contest is an unequal one. The 
Republican party is unaided by Government 
patronage or Government influence. For the 
last four years, the Slavery party in this coun- 
try has had the countenance and support of the 
President of the United States. The army of 
the nation, and not only that, but tbe judicial 
department of the Government, has prostituted 
its powers, and is willing to "grind in the prison 
house " at the behest of this political Delilah. 
The Supreme Court certainly has shown itself 
quite as willing to enter the service of Slavery 
as the most ultra friend of the institution could 
desire. 

It is true, however, that the late decision of 
the court has changed the opinion of no man 
upon the the rights of the slaveholder. It has 
only changed the opinions men may have enter- 
tained in regard to the individuals who consti- 
tute that court. Some persons may have sup- 
posed that they were too independent and up- 
right to shape their legal opinions to suit any 
political party ; but if there were any such per- 
sons prior to the decision of the Dred Scott 
case, there are none such now. It is a melan- 
choly reflection for freemen, that the depart- 
ment of this Government that we looked to as 
the rock of safety, and that we expected to stand 
as a wall of fire between Freedom and Slavery, 
has shown itself more subservient to Slavery 
than any other department of the Government. 



The other departments have usually waited, 
I believe, until an opportunity offered— until 
there has been a sho* of pretence for their aid. 
They have not rendered their services without 
being requested to do so. But the judicial de- 
partment, in this instance, voluntarily stepped 
out of iti way, in violation of all precedent, and 
on the hill-tops it now shamelessly proclaims 
its prostitution to the world. 

I have said there is now to be a contest 
between Freedom and Slavery; and I am 
proud to say that the great Republican party 
of the country, of which I am but an humble 
member;, stands forth as the champion of Free- 
dom and the rights of man. I will say now, 
that I claim no right to interfere with Slavery 
in the States where it exists ; neither does the 
Republican party, as a body, claim any such 
right. I do not desire to interefere with it in 
the States. But I avow that I have a legal, 
constitutional right to resist the extention of 
Slavery into any free territory belonging now to 
this Government ; and no earthly power in ex- 
istence can deprive me of it. I have already 
said that I am free from all national obligations 
to vote for the extension of Slavery into any of 
the Territories belonging to this Government ; 
and I will resist its extention whenever and 
wherever I choose to do eo. This is the doc- 
trine, I believe, that was inaugurated three years 
ago, and is now contended for by a very large 
majority of Anti-Slavery men in this country. 
I avail myself of this opportunity to say that 
there really are but two parties in this country. 
There is the Slavery party and the Anti- Slavery 
party. There really is no Democratic party. 
There is a party that, out of personal respect 
and courtesy, we call the Democratic party. 
But it this day has no separate and distinct ex- 
istence. It has been swallowed up, utterly 
absorbed, by the Slavery party. I do not say 
this by way of insult, or to make myself offen- 
sive to any one, but I say it because truth and 
candor require it — because things that are 
transpiring every day before our eyes carry this 
conviction home to the heart. 

Before proceeding to state the reasons why 
I am opposed to the extension of Slavery, I de- 
sire to refer to one charge that is made against 
the Republican party of this country. That is 
the charge of Abolitionism. I care nothing 
about the charge personally, neither do I pre- 
sume that any member of the party does ; but 



These charges are not made because any in- 
telligent man believes them. There is no in- 
telligent man but knows them to be utterly 
false, and without any foundation whatever. 
These charges are made by designing dema- 
gogues, to mislead the ignorant, and to excite 
a prejudice in the minds of the vulgar and the 
depraved. The black man nowhere has such 
fierce and deadly foes as in the wretched, igno- 
rant, and depraved, of earth. The more 
wretched and degraded a white man may be, 
the more deadly he hates and despises a negro; 
for the reason, he is fearful the negro is better 
than himself, and therefore comes in competi- 
tion with him for the esteem of respectable white 
men. Hence you will hear the detestable wretch, 
with bloated face, blood shot eyes, seared and 
blistered lips, with ragged and tattered garments, 
screaming at the top of his voice, "Abolitionists 1" 
This charge has had the effect to drive all 
the ignorant away from us; and many well- 
meaning men refuse to vote for our candidates, 
because they think we are really Abolitionists, 
in the full sense of the term. We have also 
been unable to hold another class of men — men 
who regard themselves as the aristocracy of the 
North. They found that the industrious yeo- 
men, the skillful mechanics, and the hardy sons 
of toil, who constitute a very large proportion 
of the Republican party, had no sympathy and 
feelings with them. They have gone to the 
only aristocracy there is in this country. The 
Republican party may rejoice that it is freed 
from such dead weight ; they would be worse 
than a millstone about its neck. In resisting 
the extension of Slavery, I make no appeals to 
the slaveholders, to excite their sympathy in 
behalf of the enslaved and oppressed. This 
has been done so frequently, and without any 
effect, that they have become hardened ; so that 
nothing but the " bursting of volcanoes or the 
crush of the riven world " could move them. I 
indulge in no sentimentality for the slave ; I can 
do him no good. While I say this, I say that 
I believe Slavery to be the gieatest moral evil 
that can exist. " It is the monarch of crimes, 
and the jewels that adorn its crown are tears 
and blood." I oppose it because of the great 
wrong that it does to the white race. It deprives 
white labor of its just reward. It builds up no 
middle class of intelligent farmers, artisans, and 
mechanics, who constitute the real strength, 
who make the real wealth, and are justly the 



I refer to it because some honest men may be j pride and glory of the free States. Where Sla 
drawn away from us because this charge is very is, there will, of course, be a class of well- 
made. I refer, also, to another charge that is | educated, refined, and accomplished men- 



made against us — that is, that we contend for 
negro equality. I say now, most emphatically, 
that the Republican party is not an Abolition- 
ist party ; that we have never at any time made 
any attempt to raise the black man to an equal- 
ity with the whites. There may be men that 
now vote with the Republican party that were 
called Abolitionists, but they have not indoc- 
trinated it with their opinions or their creeds. 



there will be refined society ; and so there is in 
many of the despotisms in Europe. 

But the proportion of educated men in the 
slave States, I presume, is not by any means 
equal to those in the free States. The South 
has produced some great statesmen — men of 
whom the country may justly be proud ; but, as 
a general thing, they were to 

"Title* born, reputation and luxurious life." 



I do not denounce slaveholders as a claps. 
There are many honest and just men among 
them — men of benevolence aud kindness ot 
heart ; but the system is demoralizing, and 
must, to a greater or less degree, demoralize 
the country where it exists. I oppose it, be- 
cause it oppresses the poor; because it deprives 
labor of its just reward ; it deprives the poor of 
the means of education ; it degrades ffftor, the 
only means of producing wealth in thi3 or any 
other country. Where Slavery exists, the road 
to honor and fame is hedged up from the poor, 
and they never can free themselves from those 
" twin jailors of the daring heart, low birth and 
iron fortune." There is nothing " to lore them 
on to those inspiring toils by which man mas- 
ters men." 

I oppose the extension of Slavery into the 
Territories of this Government, because, if this 
institution is permitted to go there, the intelli- 
gent free laborers of this country never will 
consent to live with slaves ; the free States will 
be deprived of their just and equal rights in the 
Territories ; these Territories never will add 
anything to the real greatness of the country. 
But I believe, if these Territories are occupied 
only by freemen, a great people will ultimately 
grow up in them, surpassing in power and glory 
anything the world has ever seen. I am opposed 
to Slavery, because the white inhabitants where 
it exists live in constant dread and alarm. They 
know not but they are slumbering on a volcano, 
that in a moment may overwhelm them with 
destruction. 

Who has not heard with horror, whose blood 
has not curdled in his veins, whose heart has 
not sickened, at the recital of the butcheries of 
Nat Turner and his murderous crew, when the 
blood of tender and innocent children drenched 
the soil of the Old Dominion? Then, orators 
and statesmen awakened from their long leth- 
argy, and hurled their denunciations at the in- 
stitution, until they Bhook its very foundation. 
But the cry of the murdered innocents has 
passed away upon hollow winds. Their pure 
spirits have ascended to the throne of God. 
Their mortal bodies have mouldered away in 
the silent tomb. The learned statesmen and 
eloquent orators are now sile^nt ; and the peo- 
ple of he Old Dominion are to day nursing the 
viper in their bosoms with more tender solici- 
tude than they ever did before. I oppose Sla- 
very, because it advocates and justifies the fit- 
ting out of military expeditions, and makes war 
upon weak and defenceless people, with whom 
we are at peace. Although it was said on this 
floor, since the commencement of the present 
Congress, that the Nicaraguan question had 
no negroes connected with it — that there were 
no negroes in that country — with all due re- 
spect for the persons who entertain that opin- 
ion, I say, there would have been no discus- 
sion on this floor about the capture of Walker, 
had it not been for the question of Slavery. 



The members on this floor who condemn the 
President and sustain Walker, are, I believe, 
the advocates of Slavery. They want Central 
America, because they want to extend the do- 
minions of Slavery. I presume no man believes, 
that if Walker had been engaged in making war 
upon Canada, that the Slavery advocates would 
have justified him in his lawless adventure I 
The walls of this Hall would have trembled 
under their denunciations against him. 

But there is still a greater reason than these, 
than any or all of them, against its extension. 
There can be no freedom for white men, where 
black men are held as slaves. In the slave 
States of this Union, men are to-day deprived 
of the libertv of speech and the freedom of 
the press. You may boast of your Constitu- 
tion guarantying to every man this right ; but 
the Constitution has not the strength of a rope 
of sand. It is trampled under foot by the 
mob. In the Southern States of this Union, 
no man can exercise the freedom of speech, 
unless the mob will permit it. I saw a man 
last winter, in Columbus, Ohio, who was a man 
of education and refinement, who hsd been a 
professor in a literary college, (as I waa in- 
formed,) who was driven out of the State of 
North Carolina, because he declared that he 
desired the election of Fremont, as President 
of the United States. Because he exercised 
the freedom of speech — a right u inestimable 
to freemen, and formidable to tyrants only;" 
for declaring his sentiments upon one of the 
great political questions of the day — an infuri- 
ated mob collected together, and compelled him 
to flee for his life. He was driven from his 
native State, from his kinsmen, his friends, and 
his home ; he had to go forth, a wanderer in 
the earth. Well might he say, with Bertram : 

" I have no country ; that dear name 
Camprises home, kind kindred, fosierins; friends, 
Protecting laws ! But none of these aie mine." 

It will be recollected that a respectable min- 
ister of the Gospel from the State of Virginia 
attended the Republican Convention held in 
Philadelphia, in 1856, and, for doing this, 
never was permitted to return to his home, and 
was compelled to seek refuge from violence in 
one of the free States. Such things are, I pre- 
sume, of frequent occurrence in the slave 
States ; if they are not, it is because no man 
there has tjie temerity to associate with Repub- 
licans, or to attend their Conventions. I saw 
a man within the last six weeks, who resides 
in the State of Virginia. He said that he had 
no doubt but that, if Fremont had been elected 
President of the United States, the country 
would have been quite as well off as it is with 
the present incumbent. u But," said he, " I 
dare not say that at home." Thus it is the 
mouths of freemen are stopped ; yet those that 
do it will taunt the Hepublican party with 
being a sectional party, when they know no 
man entertaining free sentiments and free opin- 
ions would be permitted to live amongst them. 



How long has it been since we saw an account 
of a bookselling establishment being broken 
up in the South, the property destroyed, the 
owners compelled to fly for personal safety ? 
Why was their property destroyed ? Why were 
they driven from the country? The public 
prints of the day said it was because they had 
a book for sale that was written by a negro. 
No man will be safe to read the Declaration of 
Independence in the State of Virginia, if their 
statute should be enforced. Dare any man pro- 
claim " that all men are created equal, endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
and among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness ? " Dare any man say that 
God " hath made of one blood all nations to 
dwell upon the face of all the earth?" 

It is made a crime by statutes in some of 
the slave States to say that man cannot hold 
property in man, or that man cannot hold 
property in a slave. If by word or deed — yea, 
" by invisible thought or unuttered wish " — 
any man should attempt to inculcate the doc- 
trine that slaves are not property, or that man 
eannot hold property in man, he will be forced 
to leave the country. You men of the slave 
States must burn the Declaration of Independ- 
ence ; you must expunge from the records of 
your court the Will of Washington ; you must 
proscribe the writings of Jefferson, and the free 
and glorious sentiments of Randolph ; you 
must erase from the memory of man the teach- 
ings of the conscript fathers of the Republic ; 
you must blot from the history of your country 
the glories of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Why 
was John Adams born, or why did Washing- 
ton live ? The heroes of the Revolution died 
in vain ; they waded through rivers and seas of 
blood to establish Independence. But there is 
a despotism to-day reigning over the minds of 
men in parts of this country, as absolute as 
there is in any Christian country in the world. 

I take no pleasure in repeating these things. 
I would be glad to avoid it if I could, but I 
would not be a proper representative of a free 
people if I did not this day declare the truth. 

It will be said, no doubt, that these statutes 
are necessary for the safety of the white race 
where Slavery exists. I do not doubt that these 
laws are deemed absolutely necessary to the 
very existence of the white popufttiou ; but I 
say it is the most grievous misfortune that could 
befall any people. Where these statutes exist, 
" Freedom can only be a name." If these stat- 
utes are necessary for the personal safety of 
the white race in the slave States, (and it ia 
declared by men of truth they are,) then I say 
I am furnished with an argument against the 
extension of Slavery that is incontrovertible and 
conclusive upon the •ubject. If the press has 
to be muzzled, if there has to be a clasp upon 
the mouth and a seal upon the lips, if free 
and glorious thoughts have to sicken and die 
unuttered, why try to extend this, the most 



terrible of despotisms ? Let me say, in the elo- 
quent language of Kotzebue — 

"Let what is within moulder and decay. Why, why 
strive to open ths wreicned charnel-house, and spread 
the pestilence around ? " 

The spirit of Slavery has not only subdued 
and stopped the mouths of men in the slave 
States^mt there are men in the free States that 
yield their independence and forfeit their man- 
hood at the dictation of the taskmasters at the 
South. It has affected, in a greater or less 
degree, a proportion of the Democratic party 
at the North. In the language of an eloquent 
writer — 

'The spirit of Slavery has pissed upon the power of 
the party like a thing of necromancy, winning ihem to its 
command and bowing them to its will, until tney have 
stood stricken and panting before it like cornered deer 
before the inexorable hunter." 

They have forfeited their manhood and their 
independence. They have eacrificed their opin- 
ions and principles, at the command of the 
Southern slaveholder. Who was more clamor- 
ous for the Wilmot Proviso than many of the 
Democracy of the free States ? Who denounced 
the fugitive slave law more fiercely and terri- 
bly than the Democracy of Ohio ? But who is 
! now more subservient to the Slave Power than 
they ? It is true, we have seen some signs of 
insurrection and rebellion in this House since 
the Bitting of the present Congress. I am glad 
to see it. And if any of those who manifest 
this independence should feel symptoms of 
spinal disease, I hope they will receive such 
remedies from their constituents as will remove 
all complaints. I have not the least doubt 
that the advocates of Slavery this day feel more 
respect for those members of the Democratic 
party from the free States who refuse to aid 
Slavery, than they do for the man who gives 
them his support. When the inquiry is made, 
why these men humble themselves at the com- 
mand of the taskmaster, the reply is, they are 
national men, and they fear the Union will be 
dissolved. I have no such apprehension, and 
I have no patience with the man who talks 
about it; and, without meaning disrespect to 
any one on this floor, I say, if there is any man 
who is the object of scorn and contempt, it is 
the Northern man who can be frightened from 
his propriety by the Slavery "raw-head and 
bloody-bones." 

It is not my prerogative to give advice to my 
Democratic friends ; but I caution them against 
becoming Union doctors. It always kills the 
doctor, but the patient survives. The fate of 
the great Webster should be a warning to all 
Northern men not to sacrifice themselves in 
any such way. Mr. Webster turned Union 
doctor ; he cut loose from his friends at the 
North, the men that had stood by him in all 
his troubles and trials — men, whose respect for 
him amounted almost to adoration. He turned 
from them ; he threw himself into the arms of 
the South. On the 7th of March, 1850, he 
made his great speech in favor of the fugitive 



slave bill. . He aided, by his great powers, to 
pass that measure. A little more than two 
years thereafter, a Convention was held by the 
"Whig party, to nominate a candidate for Pres- 
ident. The few remaining friends that Mr. 
Webster had, were represented in that Conven- 
tion. They expected the Whig delegates from 
the South would support him. The whoh 
country knew what services he had rendered 
them — the mighty efforts he had put forth to 
aid in passing their favorite measure. But not 
one single vote could be had for him from the 
slave States. No appeals that could be made 
could bring a single man to his Bupport. I be- 
lieve it is conceded that his days were shorten- 
ed by the action of that Convention. Webster 
died ; but the Union lives, and will live for 
generations yet to come. 

There has been a series of acts perpetrated 
recently by the Pro Slavery party in this coun- 
try, that would astound the world, if mankind 
had not ceased to be astonished at any act, 
however outrageous, they might commit. I 
refer to the recent election frauds in Kansas 
and Minnesota. I take but one specimen in 
Kansas. I take the Oxford precinct, in John 
son county. There was a Democratic majority 
of fifteen hundred returned from a place where 
everybody that knows anything about it knows 
there were not three hundred voters. These 
names, that were returned as being voters in 
that precinct, were copied from the Cincinnati 
business directory. The return showed upon 
its face that it was a fraud. At the time of the 
return, no man in the Territory pretended that 
it was genuine. Nobody pretended there was 
any such number of voters there. Nobody pre- 
tends any such thing now — the evidence of the 
fraud being so complete and overwhelming 
that it could not be resisted. Under these 
circumstaEces, Governor Walker rejected the 
return ; no honest man could have done any- 
thing else. After doing this, he published a 
statement of the facts and circumstances, justi- 
fying himself for what he had done. 

In the face of all this evidence, the papers in 
the South have raised a yell over it, more terri- 
ble than would be raised if a lighted torch had 
been thrown into a den of wolves. For doing 
this act of justice, the Governor forfeited the 
confidence of the party, and, we have strong 
reason to believe, for this act has been compel 
led to resign his office. What kind of a sight 
is this for honest men to look upon? An 
American statesman, for refusing to become a 
party to the most infamous fraud the world has 
ever seen, is branded as a traitor to his party 
and driven from office. This, perhaps, is 
enough upon this one case. I will now refer 
to Minnesota. There is a county, there called 
Pembina ; and, from the best information I can 
obtain, it has but a very small population, that 
part of it which properly belongs to Minnesota 
not having more than fifteen or twenty voters. 
This county, we are informed, returned a ma- 



jority of six hundred for the Democratic candi- 
date for Governor. This district of country had 
six delegates in the Constitutional Convention. 
How many Representatives in the Legislature, 
now I cannot tell ; but I presume quite as 
many as it had delegates in the Convention. 
From other places in that country, where there 
were but very few white settlers, there were large 
numbers of votes returned. We have an ac- 
count in one place of a hundred savages that 
were led to the polls to vote ; not one of them 
could tell their names, or could speak a word 
of our language. They were bedaubed with 
their war-paint, armed with bows and arrows, 
and war clubs; dressed in their breech-clouts, 
if they were dressed at all ; led on and directed 
how to vote, no doubt, by some individual who 
was probably appointed nominally as an In- 
dian agent, but made it his business to manu- 
facture bogus votes for his party. 

How long is the country to submit to this ? 
If we can believe the statements that are made 
in regard to these frauds, we are bound to be- 
lieve that, in the last election held in Minneso- 
ta, hundreds of degraded savages, that could 
not speak a word of our language, that have no 
possible conception of our form of Government, 
went to the polls ; and every one of them, by 
the direction of somebody, because they could 
have no mind of their own, voted the Demo- 
cratic ticket, and the vote of each and every 
one counted as much as the vote of the most 
intelligent man in that Territory. Thus it is a 
Democratic Governor is elected — members of 
the Senate and House of Representatives. These 
statements have been before the country for 
months ; I have not seen them disputed ; I be- 
lieve them to be true, and, what is more, I have 
not heard a word of condemnation from any pa- 
per of the party, or from any member of the 
party, either public or private ; and from all the 
information I have, I am reluctantly led to be- 
lieve that the party justifies these wrongs. 

The question may be asked, why does it jus- 
tify these wrongs ? There is but one solution 
to the question. Slavery has done it ; Slavery 
has taken possession of the party, and debauch- 
ed it. The3e are the legitimate fruits of a sys- 
tem that teaches that one class of men have no 
rights that another class is bound to respect. It 
is founded in wrong, it is a matter of force, and 
the same principle and spirit that teaches that 
black men have no rights that white men are 
bound to respect, will defraud white men of 
their rights whenever ambition or interest de- 
mands it. It is a part of the plan of the slave 
party in this country to hold the entire control 
of the Government, and to appropriate to them- 
selves its emoluments and its honors ; where 
there are ruffians and robbers that can be 
brought from adjoining States, with revolvers 
and bowie-knives, to drive honorable men from 
the polls, and stuff ballot-boxes with fraudulent 
votes, and elect dishonest men to office, that 
) plan is adopted ; where ruffians, revolvers, and 



bowie-knives, cannot be obtained, hideotis sav- 
ages, bedaubed with their war-paint, and armed 
with their war-clubp, are made to do the voting. 
But when neither border ruffians nor savages 
can be obtained, what then ? The Cincinnati 
business directory is brought up, and casts fif- 
teen hundred votes. But when there are neither 
ruffians, savages, nor business directories, to be 
obtained, then what ? Then they resort to the 
imagination, and the pure bogus votes are fur 
nished. Because Slavery has done all these 
things, I oppose its extension into any free terri- 
tory. 

There are other and special reasons why Sla- 
very should not be admitted into Kansas. The 
first, and one which I deem entirely conclusive, 
is : Thirty-seven years ago, a solemn compact 
was entered into, between the North and the 
South, whereby it was agreed, upon sufficient 
consideration, that there never should be any 
Slavery north of 36° 3 0' north latitude. This 
compact was strictly observed on the part of 
the North. The South got everything that 
they contemplated, and the States of Florida 
and Texas, with territory sufficient to make four 
States, in addition to what wa3 originally 
contemplated; she received and appropriated 
them to her own use. The North submitted 
quietly to it, because she believed the national 
faith required it. But juBt as the North got 
ready to appropriate her part of the considera- 
tion for this compact, the South demanded its 
abrogation. The Missouri compromise was re- 
pealed, in violation of national faith and honesty, 
in violation of the principles that should govern 
the intercourse of all honorable men. But not- 
withstanding the repeal of the Missouri com- 
promise, it was promised that the future inhab- 
itants should be perfectly free to govern them- 
selves. The act repealing the Missouri com- 
promise contained this very anomalous provis- 
ion, the like of which was probably never seen 
in any act of any legislative body before, and I 
presume never will be seen again. I quote the 
provision : 

"It being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to 
legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, nor to ex- 
clude it therefrom, hut to leave the people perfectly free 
to form and regulate their own domestic institutions in 
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." 

The people of Kansas were not only to be 
free, but they were to be perfectly free. It has 
been said frequently, by metaphysicians, that 
no human being is perfect — no human laws are 
perfect — but the people of this Territory were 
to approach nearer Divinity than any other 
created beings. They were to be perfectly free, 
subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States. This part of that act, I believe, has 
been justly denominated a stump speech. This 
organic act went forth to the world containing 
this pledge, that the people of these Territo- 
ries were to be perfectly free. The Territory 
of Kansas was organized in pursuance of that 
act. The people of the free States, having this 



solemn assurance of perfect freedom, emigra- 
ted there. But since the organization of the 
Territory, to this day, there has reigned therein 
the most terrible despotism the world has ever 
seen. The wrongs and outrages that this coun- 
try suffered before the Revolution were noth- 
ing, compared with the wrongs suffered by the 
people of Kansas ever since its organization. I 
have known of no reign of terror that has exist- 
ed anywhere in modern times, that has equalled 
the reign of terror that existed there during 
the last three years, unless it was the reign of 
terror in France, 1791. The murders in France 
were more numerous, but those that were put 
to death were charged with being aristocrats, 
despots, foes to the rights of man ; while in 
Kansas, if a man was known to be in favor of 
the establishment of a free State in that Terri- 
tory, he was a mark for the assassin's dagger. 

Since the organization of that Territory, every 
right that freemen hold dear has been taken 
from them. At the first election that was held 
in the Territory, the actual settlers and resi- 
dents were driven from the polls by ruffians, 
villains, and murderers, from Missouri and other 
States of this Union. The rights of the people 
of the Territory were trampled in the dust. 
Their ballot-boxes were stuffed with fraudulent 
votes. Men were elected to the Territorial 
Legislature who were not residents of the Ter- 
ritory ; and if we are to judge of the character 
of men who constituted that body by the laws 
that were passed by them, there certainly never 
has been a meeting of any such fiends in any 
other place, except Pandemonium. 

This ruffian band, calling themselves legisla- 
tors, were no doubt sustained by the Adminis- 
tration. The army of this great nation was 
there to back and protect them in trampling 
upon the rights of the people of that Territory. 
I say, now, that if the actual settlers there had 
possessed the power to have driven them from 
the legislative halls by force and violence, they 
would have been justified in so doing. I would 
not justify force and violence, and mob law, 
when there is any legal mode of redressing 
wrongs ; but here there was none. These usurp- 
ers obtained their places by force and violence, 
and if the actual settlers had no other means 
of defending themselves against the acts of 
these tyrants, they would have been justified in 
the sight of God and man, if they had taken 
them from the legislative halls, and hanged 
them by their necks until they were dead. This 
legislative body passed the most odious and 
oppressive laws — laws that would almost rival 
in cruelty the code of the most absolute despot- 
ism now in existence. The Administration 
appointed wicked and depraved men to office, 
while this band of usurpers were enacting laws 
to crush the hearts and lives of the Free State 
men. The courts of the Territory were run- 
ning their course of infamy. In a court held 
there by a j udge appointed by the President of 
the United States, the grand jury, ander the 






charge of the court., presented a hotel as a nui- 
sance. On an order issued from that court, 
the building was destroyed, the order being 
executed by a sheriff appointed by the bogus 
Legislature. The building was first fired upon 
with cannon, but, being too strong to be destroy- 
ed that way, it was blown up with powder. And 
why was this done ? For no other reason but 
because it belonged to Free State men. The 
house of Governor Robinson was burned, be- 
cause he was a Free State man. These Free 
State men had wronged no one — they had 
attempted to wrong no one. 

In the mean time, Dow, a Free State man, 
from the State of Ohio, was shot down dead in 
the public highway, in open day, by a man 
named Coleman. Dow was guilty of no offence 
whatever — had given no provocation. It was a 
cold-blooded, premeditated murder. Yet the 
murderer has never been punished, or even 
tried, to this day, but, if I am correctly in- 
formed, was rewarded for it by an appointment 
as an officer in the Kansas militia. Barber, 
another Free State man, from the State of Ohio, 
was murdered by a man named Clark, who, it 
is said, at the time of committing the murder, 
was holding the office of Indian agent, under 
the appointment of the Administration, and is 
now in the land office in the Territory. Brown, 
another Free State man from the State of Ohio, 
was chopped to death with hatchets, and his 
mangled, bloody, and dying body was taken to 
his house and thrown into the presence of his 
wife. The murderers of Brows, I believe, have 
never been punished, and never even been tried. 
I have it from a source that I can rely upon, 
that the town of Oasawatomie was burned, a 
part of the inhabitants were murdered, and the 
remainder were driven out, houseless and home- 
less, into the world. Women and tender infants 
were compelled to lie on the cold, damp ground, 
with nothing to protect them from the rain and 
storms but tents made of thin cloth. When 
this town was burned and destroyed, when its 
inhabitants were either murdered or driven 
away from their homes, the army of this great 
nation was iu sight, the witnesses of these deeds 
of horror, but did not interfere. Why did it 
not? Because the power that controlled it did 
not desire to do so. The army was not there 
for any such purpose. It was to protect the 
Slavery party. 

But why multiply these cases? Crimes 
enough have been perpetrated by the Slavery 
party in that Territory, since 1854, to condemn 
a world. Its path has been marked by crimes the 
most horrible, and red with human blood. If 
I believed in special judgments of God, I should 
expect to hear of sweeping tornadoes, wide wast- 
ing earthquakes, deadly plagues, and scathing 
lightning, hurling the perpetrators of these crimes 
to Bwift destruction. The crowning act of all 
these wrongs is now presented in the form of a 
Constitution, to be forced upon the people with- 
out their consent. To admit KanBas with a Sla- 



very Constitution would be a payable violation 
of one of the best-established principles of ihe 
common law; that is, that no perpon shall take 
advantage of his own wrong. The Missouri 
compromise was repealed to put Slavery into 
Kansas. This was a great wrong, and one for 
which this nation may yet repent in dust and 
ashes. To admit Kansas as she is to be pre- 
sented, this great principle, that I have stated, 
would be violated. I never will consent to do 
any such thing. The repeal of the Missouri 
compromise I regard, as I have already said, a 
great wrong to the North, when there was no 
necessity for it. I am determined, while I have 
the honor to hold a place upon this floor, that 
by no act of mine shall you ever reap any ben- 
efit therefrom. 

Before this was done, the South had more 
territory than the North — they have a decided 
advantage in soil and climate; more than this, 
they had therein what they call a heaven-born 
institution, one that they believed has received 
the sanction of the Most High. With their rich 
and productive soil, with their warm and genial 
sun, with their patriarchal institution of Slavery, 
that has descended in a direct line from Abra- 
ham to the people of Georgia, with collateral 
branches into Missouri and other slave States, 
they must multiply and become as the stars of 
the firmament, and shine forever and ever. With 
this institution, you will grow up a great and 
powerful people. When the Yankees come to 
invade your rights, (as you say they are doing 
now,) these men' that you hold as bondmen, 
that cannot say their lives are their own, not 
even if they say it "subject to the Constitution 
of the United States;" these beings, that are 
not the owners of the wool that grows on. the 
top of the head — 

"The place where the wool ought to grow," 
these persons that we have been so eloquently 
and vehemently told are so well clothed and so 
well fed, and so joyous and so happy, will no 
doubt feel sensible of the mighty blessings you 
have conferred upon them ; will be ready to go 
out to battle for you. These men will, no doubt, 
willingly lay down their lives; will rejoice in 
the glorious privilege of suffering martyrdom, 
in defence of this heaven-born institution. 

But, to return to the Lecompton Constitution. 
I will not stop to inquire whether the Territo- 
rial Legislature had any power to call a Con- 
stitutional Convention or not. I will deal iu 
no such abstractions. It is sufficient for me to 
to know that it has Slavery in it, and that a 
large majority of the people of the Territory 
had no part in making the Constitution. By 
the despotic acts of tyrants, they were deprived 
of all power ; and as a full and entire refutation 
of the assertion made upon this floor and else- 
where, that the people of the Territory had a 
fair opportunity to take a part in framing that 
Constitution, I adopt an extract from the let- 
ter of Robert J. Walker, resigning his office as 
Governor of that Territory, and use it as an 



s 



argument. On this point, the Governor says: 

"On reference to the Territorial law, under which the 
Convention was assembled, thirty- four regularly-organ- 
ized counties were named as election districts for dele- 
gates 10 the Convention. In each and all of these coun- 
ties it was required by law that a census should be taken 
and the voters registered ; and when this was completed, 
the delegates to the Convention should be apportioned ac- 
cordingly. In nineteen of these counties, there wa« no cen- 
sus, and, therefore, there could be no such apportionment 
there of delegates based upon such census. And in fif- 
teen of these counties, there was no registry of voters. 
Tnese fifteen counties, including many of the oldest or- 
ganized counties in the Territory, were entirely disfran- 
chised, and did not give, and (by no fault of their own) 
could not give, a solitary vole for delegates to the Con- 
vention. This result was superinduced by ihe fact thai 
the Territorial Legislature appointed all the sheriffs and 
probate judges, in all ihese counties, to whom was as- 
signed the duty, by law, of making this census and regis- 
try. These officers were political partisans, dissenting 
from the views and opinions of the people of these coun- 
ties, as proved by the election in October last. These offi- 
cers, from want of funds, as they allege, neglected or re- 
fusea to take any census or make any registry in these 
counties, and, therefore, they were entirely disfranchised, 
and could not give, and did not give, a single vote at the 
election for delegates to the Constitutional Convention. 

" And here I wish to call attention to the distinction, 
which will appear in my inaugural address, in reference 
to those counties where the voters were fairly register* d, 
and did not vote. In such counties, where a full and free 
opportunity was given to register and vote, and they did 
not choose to exercise that privilege, the question is very 
different from those counties where there was no census 
or registry, and no vot« was given, or could be given, how- 
ever anxious the people might be to panicipate in the elec- 
tion of delegates to the Convention Nor could it be said 
these counties acquiesced ; for wherever they endeavored, 
by a subsequent census or registry of their own, to supply 
this defect, occasioned by the previous neglect of the Ter- 
ritorial officers, the delegates thus chosen were rejected 
by the Convention. I repeat, that in nineteen counties out 
of thirty-four, there was no census. In fifteen count.es 
out 01 thiny-four, there was no registry, and not a solitary 
vote was given, or could be given, for delegates to Ihe Con- 
vention, in any one of these coumies" Surely, then, it can- 
not be said that such a Convention, chosen by scarcely 
more than one-tenth of the present voters of Kansas rep- 
resented the people of that Territory, and could rightfully 
impose a Constitution upon them without their consent. 
These nineteen counties, in which there was no census, 
constituted a majority of the counties of the Territory ; and 
these fifteen counties, in which thtre was no registry, 
gave a much larger vote at the October election, even 
with the six months' qualification, than the whole vote 
given to the delegates who signed the Lecompton Consti- 
tution on the 7th November last." 

This must put the question forever at rest. It 
is unanswered, and is unanswerable. The peo- 



ple of that Territory are now lifting their im" 
ploring hands and streaming eyes, and calling 
upon the Congress of this great nation for re- 
lief. It would be no violence to truth to say, 
that for the last three years the people of that 
Territory have suffered 

" The spurn of menials ; 
A despot's vengeance, a false country's curse." 

I ask you this day, will you relieve them ; or 
will you enforce this Constitution, when you 
know it will have to be done at the bayonet's 
point and the cannon's mouth ? In such a 
contest, do you believe that a God of justice, of 
love, and ot mercy, could be en your side ? As 
gentlemen on the other side are in the habit of 
quoting Scripture for their purpose, I will quote 
some tor their consideration : " Reason takes 
up the language of Scripture, and repeats with 
earnest conviction," " Though hand join in 
hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." 
" The curse of the Lord is in the house of the 
wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the 
just." 

If this Government persists in its crimes 
against Kansas, it must suffer the penalty of 
these national sins. It is one of the irrevoca- 
ble decrees of God, that for every violation of 
his laws there is a penalty ; and this penalty 
will come, just 80 certain as the sound of the 
thunder follows " the lightning's fiery wing." 
I tell you the day of settlement approaches. If 
you pass this Lecompton Constitution, the low 
muttering thunder that was heard three years 
ago in the North and West, will break out with 
tenfold fury. The fires that were then kindled 
will sweep over the country, " like red tongues 
of demons, to blast and devour." I say to you 
that the tyrants in Kansas that have trampled 
the rights of freemen in the dust, whose hands 
are red with innocent blood, will receive the 
just reward of their wickedness and their crimes. 
A weak and wicked Administration may throw 
its shield around them ; but 

" Neither men, nor devils, 
Nor sheltering angels, can protect them." 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1858. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 094 477 8i 




